smartie2000
Well-Known Member
I said earlier this year that I would repot my Cyp. pubescens this fall.
This is the plant this spring : http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16598
I think it has been four years since the first potting. The purpose of the repot was to give more room for the plant to make new growths. The plant was 11 growths last year, and this fall it is 14 growths for the next spring. That was a slow down compared to last year (doubling in size each year). As well, if some of the plant dies for any reason, at least the whole plant won't die since they will be separated plants.
I found the largest pot I could find. It was a nursery pot for a tree, and it is only a 3 inch increase in size. I would go bigger if I could:
Dumping off the first layer, I noticed that I added a lot of perlite on the surface initially, or it has risen up over the years because perlite is ligher than sand. Also I did not disturb the orginal potting, from Hole's Garden Centre, which was more organic. Previously the sides of the pot was mainly filled with perlite, aquarium gravel (green was the only color available in my house at the time), sand, dolomite, and some old/decomposed potting soil with old orchid bark.
The roots really grew into the sand mixture, and actually deeper into the pot than I thought. It has been raining basically everyday lately and the medium was wet. but I think it was not too muddy based on the plants performance. If it was too muddy I doubt that the roots would go very deep.
I picture of the roots from behind. I will have to carefully separate growths from the back, because they grow very close together and I do not want to damage them. Also it was a very windy autumn day, so it was important to spray them with water or the roots would dry out.
Separating:
I filled the bottom of the pot with mostly sand and hydroton and some perlite. since I don't expect the roots to grow that deep, I just used something well draining and light (so the pot is not too heavy for easy lifting, hydroton is light)
I tried to keep them at the same level in the pot as before, although it was not perfect. I arranged them into the pot like this:
I'd still like a larger pot, the roots don't have extra space. I may increase the potsize if I find a larger one inthe future, but I probably won't need to break it apart and disturb it much again.
This is a picture of the old medium, everything mixed together because of the dumping, including the old garden centre's media. But this gives an idea of what it looked like.
I am reusing the old medium because I did not want to make too much change and stress out the plant. Also I don't see a problem since new medium would have organics with would probably change/decompose as the years go by. Old stuff changes minimally.
I did had to add some stuff to it since the pot is larger. That included more sand, perlite and some hydroton. I also added a small amount of soil from my yard.
And back into the old spot in the ground. The pot still has an inch left without soil on top. This allows me to put leaf litter in it before the winter, and also to protect from heat in the summer. I also dumped the rest of the hydroton on top, it will give a similar purpose. It grows near conifer trees, so pine needles do drop on them. I often clear these out of the pot because naturally Cypripedium parviflorum do not grow near conifers. As well I added a spoon of dolomite lime to balance off the acidic pine needles. A siberian iris (I think) and a daylily does grown in the area too, so it gets good sunlight light.
Too bad they don't naturally grow under pines, because the soil there is very rich and composed, if I had the chance and commitment I would plant Cypripedium acuale there since they grow under conifers in the wild.
I hope it will do well next year and still bloom as well. Hopefully it will double up in size now that they are separate and have more room.
This is the plant this spring : http://www.slippertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=16598
I think it has been four years since the first potting. The purpose of the repot was to give more room for the plant to make new growths. The plant was 11 growths last year, and this fall it is 14 growths for the next spring. That was a slow down compared to last year (doubling in size each year). As well, if some of the plant dies for any reason, at least the whole plant won't die since they will be separated plants.
I found the largest pot I could find. It was a nursery pot for a tree, and it is only a 3 inch increase in size. I would go bigger if I could:
Dumping off the first layer, I noticed that I added a lot of perlite on the surface initially, or it has risen up over the years because perlite is ligher than sand. Also I did not disturb the orginal potting, from Hole's Garden Centre, which was more organic. Previously the sides of the pot was mainly filled with perlite, aquarium gravel (green was the only color available in my house at the time), sand, dolomite, and some old/decomposed potting soil with old orchid bark.
The roots really grew into the sand mixture, and actually deeper into the pot than I thought. It has been raining basically everyday lately and the medium was wet. but I think it was not too muddy based on the plants performance. If it was too muddy I doubt that the roots would go very deep.
I picture of the roots from behind. I will have to carefully separate growths from the back, because they grow very close together and I do not want to damage them. Also it was a very windy autumn day, so it was important to spray them with water or the roots would dry out.
Separating:
I filled the bottom of the pot with mostly sand and hydroton and some perlite. since I don't expect the roots to grow that deep, I just used something well draining and light (so the pot is not too heavy for easy lifting, hydroton is light)
I tried to keep them at the same level in the pot as before, although it was not perfect. I arranged them into the pot like this:
I'd still like a larger pot, the roots don't have extra space. I may increase the potsize if I find a larger one inthe future, but I probably won't need to break it apart and disturb it much again.
This is a picture of the old medium, everything mixed together because of the dumping, including the old garden centre's media. But this gives an idea of what it looked like.
I am reusing the old medium because I did not want to make too much change and stress out the plant. Also I don't see a problem since new medium would have organics with would probably change/decompose as the years go by. Old stuff changes minimally.
I did had to add some stuff to it since the pot is larger. That included more sand, perlite and some hydroton. I also added a small amount of soil from my yard.
And back into the old spot in the ground. The pot still has an inch left without soil on top. This allows me to put leaf litter in it before the winter, and also to protect from heat in the summer. I also dumped the rest of the hydroton on top, it will give a similar purpose. It grows near conifer trees, so pine needles do drop on them. I often clear these out of the pot because naturally Cypripedium parviflorum do not grow near conifers. As well I added a spoon of dolomite lime to balance off the acidic pine needles. A siberian iris (I think) and a daylily does grown in the area too, so it gets good sunlight light.
Too bad they don't naturally grow under pines, because the soil there is very rich and composed, if I had the chance and commitment I would plant Cypripedium acuale there since they grow under conifers in the wild.
I hope it will do well next year and still bloom as well. Hopefully it will double up in size now that they are separate and have more room.
